Millennium Technology Prize 2008: Winners

Recipients

1. Robert S. Langer

   Biology

   For his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration that have saved human lives and improved the lives of millions of patients.

2. Emmanuel Desurvire, Randy Giles, David N. Payne

   Physics

   For the erbium-doped fibre amplifier, which vastly increased the transmission capacity of global optical fibre networks.

3. Andrew Viterbi

   CS

   For the Viterbi algorithm, used to avoid errors in wireless communications systems and devices.

4. Alec Jeffreys

   Biology

   For the DNA fingerprinting technique, which revolutionized forensic science and methods of defining family relationships.